Extra seats to ease pain on the trains
Around 10,000 extra seats on trains are being made available this weekend as work shuts the line between Stafford, the Black Country and London.
Chiltern Railways is offering the extra seats because Virgin Trains will only run an hourly service from London Euston to Nuneaton and Coventry on Sunday and Christmas Eve.
The Birmingham to Scotland service will continue as usual.
Passengers wanting to go between Stafford, Wolverhampton and Sandwell and Dudley will have to get off at Coventry and change trains.
Trains will still run in and out of Wolverhampton and throughout the Black Country so Virgin said its passengers will not be expected to use replacement buses.
However, Virgin is recommending its customers get off the train in Birmingham, walk to Moor Street station and use its' rival Chiltern Railways' line to go to London Marylebone instead.
The weekend work heralds the start of extensive maintenance over the Christmas period.
Network Rail is spending £125 million on signalling work at Bletchley near Milton Keynes.
Over Christmas the company will be bringing the new system into operation, closing an old signal box and moving control to Rugby.
Chiltern spokesman Emma Gascoigne said: "Chiltern Railways are providing over 10,000 additional seats for passengers travelling on December 23 and 24.
"On Christmas Eve the company ise advising customers to carefully check their last train time home.
"The last train leaving London Marylebone going to Stourbridge Junction will be at 8.15pm and the last train leaving Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone will also be at 8.15pm."